5 ways to clear storage space on your iPhone or iPad

The storage space in iPhone or iPad are limited, especially if you are having a 8GB unit. Even with a 64GB iPhone, you might run out of memory unexpectedly. Here are 5 areas to look out for when trying to reduce the storage space on your iOS devices.

1. Remove unused games and apps

Apps are the biggest culprits for eating up the memory space. This is so much truer if you play a lot of games. Typically games are of size 500MB or bigger, and it is not uncommon to find games that are more than 1GB in size. Compare this with a typical productivity app which takes up between 80-100MB of the memory space.

To check memory usage by apps, go to Settings > General > Usage and wait for iOS to display the list of apps ordered by size of memory usage.

To delete an app, tap the app and then the Delete App button in the detail page.

Remove all apps and games that you no longer are using. You can always download them back again from the App Store when you need them in the future.

2. Delete old text messages

When you send a text message with a photo, the photo is saved within the app. There is no easy way to remove all text in Messages app. You have to remove them manually by tapping on the Edit button on main screen, and remove message conversation one by one.

For WhatsApp, there’s a Clear All Conversations button on the settings page within the app.

Depending on what messaging apps that you’re mostly using, visit the apps and check their settings page for ways to clear old messages and conversations.

3. Delete video and voice recording

Video and voice recording tends to be much larger in size compare with other document type. If you do a lot of video or voice recording, delete unused recordings manually from Photos, Voice Memos or any other apps that records video and voice.

4. Clear browser cache and Reading List

Browser cache is one area where your browsing activities could place large amount of cache files that are taking up precious memory space. To clear them, go to Settings > Safari and tap on Clear History and Clear Cookies and Data button.

Safari’s Reading List syncs the bookmarks via iCloud but it also saved bookmark data inside your local iOS devices. The only way to reduce the memory space is to manage your reading list actively and clear the bookmark as soon as it is read.

If Chrome or other browser app is your goto app for web browsing, check out the method within these third party browsers how to clear history cache.

5. Remove data within apps

Beside games, messages, video, voice and browser apps, watch out for apps that you use regularly especially for those that store media files locally.

For example if you use VLC app for audio and video playback, you might have downloaded or transferred large media files into VLC app. Remove those unwanted media files to save memory space.